November 27, 2007

James Brown, Shawn Ironmonger, Michael Moninski and Dan Moore from Purdue University put together quite the gambling machine. They made a Smart RFID Poker Table that could keep track of where chips where placed on the table. After watching a few of the gambling cheat shows on TV where people use misdirection and slight of hand to increase their bets when it is in their favor would be shot down if this technology was employed. Great job guys!

“Our project aims to simplify the poker playing experience by providing each player at the table with information about the game in process. Using RFID, the Smart Poker Table will track the movement of poker chips in play and use this data to inform players of the state of the game. The Smart Poker Table will also record statistics on a web page for future reference.”

Putting RFID into the cards would be an interesting concept but I am not sure that the technology allows for paper thin chips yet. I could be wrong about that… The cost would be high though since they throw away the cards on a regular basis. But I guess like anything if you make enough of them the individual cost may turn out to be next to nothing.

@ Alan:
You are not right here, rfid transponders are available as paper thin version. And they are quite cheap too. But which player is interested in collection informartions about his cards? Would anyone play with rfis cards??